Vegan Camp Out 2021: Story time (Lu’s P.O.V)

Lu’s P.O.V (Story Time): Our first time at Vegan Camp Out

Welcome to Vegan Camp Out 2021 Story time… Vegan Camp Out (VCO) is the largest international vegan camping festival in the WORLD! Read on to hear Lu’s P.O.V of VCO 2021.

On the way to Vegan Camp Out 2021

We aimed to get to Vegan Camp Out for when the carpark opened at 1pm. If you know us, you know this didn’t happen! Anyway, I think we left the house at 1130am, this meant we were supposed to get there for 2pm instead (not bad!).

However, the traffic was HURRENOUS, obviously everyone is going to VCO the same way as us! Ha-ha no but a lot of people were obviously going away for the weekend.

We needed a pit stop when we were about 1hour away from Newark Showground, so we stopped for a Greggs and a Starbucks! We tried the NEW vegan Sausage, Bean and Cheeze Melt… It was sooo good! We also got some Glazed Donuts – YUM!

We then got a Starbucks for the road – Adam got their Vanilla Frappuccino with coffee, their nut blend and vegan whip and I got the strawberry and cream Frappuccino with nut blend and vegan whip (thanks Starbucks!). This was our last stop before we arrived. Just to add, this was my first time trying the strawberry & cream frap and OMG it won’t be the last! …it was lovvvely.

Arriving at Vegan Camp Out 2021

As we arrived around the area of Newark Showground, we began to see people walking with their tents, sleeping bags and backpacks heading to VCO! We were still sat in bad traffic heading to the grounds, but I don’t think we quite anticipated how many people there would be when we arrived.

The cars in the carpark went on forever… the queues of people were sooo long! And we wondered how we were going to carry all our stuff from the car, through the queue and to our camping spot, it felt like we’d be doing trips all day!!

But we managed to calm down and work out which gate was closest to where we wanted to camp and so we grabbed what we could from the car and joined the long line to get our wrist bands. Actually, it didn’t seem like we queued for that long at all… someone in front of us in the line said she recognised us, we told her its probably from Dual Adventures 😉 (jokes!!).

We’re in VCO 2021, wrist bands and all!

We made it, were in! First things first – freebies! We got some different flavored packets of ‘love corn’ and some Happy Cow stickers on entrance. Next, to find our spot in the quiet area… we’d been looking at the map before arriving and decided we wanted to camp in the quiet area to get the best sleep we could throughout the weekend and wake up feeling fresh, it was also the closest area to the car park – bonus! …sounds like a plan, right?

However, the quiet area, wasn’t so quiet… not in terms of how many people had clearly had the same idea as us anyway! It was FULL and I mean FULL. We didn’t fancy camping on top of everyone else, so we had no choice but to head on in further to find another spot. The next field along to the right was the family area, as much as some kids are cute, we didn’t want to get woken up by them early morning. The next camping area to the left was pretty empty. THIS IS THE ONE!

Until, I noticed the sign: WARNING High Voltage… yeah, lets not camp next to the high voltage electric box Ad… on to the next field it is.

Now, this is definitely the one, we picked a spot and quickly realised we were camping just outside the Mind & Body tent… yay! We definitely can’t be late for morning yoga now!

Where we had decided to camp was relatively quiet for the time being, not many people had chosen the same spot. That had us thinking, what’s wrong with this area? Are loads more people going to turn up and camp around us? Will we end up with people camping right outside our tent? Will they be people we get along with? We literally didn’t know what to expect.

Friday evening at VCO 2021

To our delight, not many other people surrounded us, as the Mind & Body tent needed space on the field for everyone. And we were joined by some lovely people camping around us… We ended up helping both neighbors put up their tents and got on with them all really well. (YAY!)

Our lovely neighbour offered us a drink for helping her with the tent… and well the rest is history for Friday night!

No, just kidding, I just wanted to say that… I’ll tell you about Friday night ha-ha! We had a few drinks at the tents and then headed off to wander around the festival and see what was what. As we walked past the Mind & Body tent, we were pretty much right at the stalls, not bad eh! We had a little browse as we passed through… the next area we came to was the music arena, this is where most of the music performers of the weekend were going to be on. Next was the activism venue, this was where all the talks were going to be held.

We then arrived at the food stalls… many many deliciously looking food stalls! I mean, our main reason for coming to the festival was the food ha-ha! After the long line of food vendors – that all looked amazing – we arrived at the main stage. This is where the headliners would perform and the afterparties were also held here.

Unfortunately, when we arrived on the Friday at the Main Stage BOSH had just finished their talk. However, I NEEDED to go and speak to them, as my mum had sent her book to get signed and she’d also sent them a lucky flower (she’s cute). So, Myself, Adam and our new friend Maddi headed into the main stage to find the BOSH guys.

We just caught them heading off stage and called them over. They didn’t have to respond but they came over and were so lovely, they had a selfie with us to send to my mum and had a little chat with us, even with our (probably) annoying drunken merry ways! Hahaha. I didn’t have the book with me to sign, but they assured me they were doing book signings the next day at their stall. BOSH was also DJing that night. So, we headed back to our tent for more drink supplies and then headed out to dance the night away.

Highlight of the night for Adam: we got Pies for £1 from ‘Mr Nice Pie’ at 1130pm and they were amazing!

Saturday at Vegan Camp Out 2021

Good Morning… or was it?!

So, you know how I said, we can’t be late for yoga? You know because we were camped right outside the Mind & Body tent… We missed morning meditation, we then missed the 1^st yoga session oh and then the second one! Ha-ha, GREAT! We didn’t wake up feeling very fresh on Saturday morning, but we had fun Friday night so that’s all that matters right?

So, we got up and went for a shower… oh I wish it was that simple. We went for a shower, and I realised I left my wash bag at the tent, so we nipped back for it. We went for a shower again and I realised I didn’t have my towels… So, I went back for them and finally went to join the queue for a shower. I had no intentions of waiting in long lines for a shower, but I needed it to feel human again LOL. The toilet and shower block closest to us was literally just behind the Mind & Body tent, so not far at all… However, the queue for it was just always SO long!

TIP: (& for future reference for us) We definitely will be taking a camping toilet for near to our tent next time.

After a shower, I managed to catch the last half of the final morning yoga session for Saturday. Honestly so pleased with where we decided to camp though – because I just joined in right outside our tent. (Bliss!) We then made some little porridge pots and coconut coffee in the tent and were ready for the day ahead!

Saturday Afternoon…

OK it was only 1130am and we were ready for FOOD!! All 3 of us, starving… so although there was so much food choice, the queues were so long for some of them. So, we decided to just choose somewhere with a small line. Burgers it is! We got burgers from ‘Vegan Vice’… I’m not a massive burger fan myself so it was OK to me. However, I think Adam and Maddi liked it more than I did. But it definitely filled a little hangover hole! 😊

We were then filled up and ready to explore the stalls properly, Maddi went off to buy some lovely T-shirts… meanwhile myself and Adam stood in another queue to buy Vegan Chocolate at The Vegan Kind Stall.  (I think I even had a stand-up nap in the queue LOL). I quickly realised it was time to get mums book signed, but the queue for the signing was HUGE… Popular boys Ey! We didn’t fancy standing in it, so, Maddi decided to treat us to some drinks from the bar (hair of the dog and all that!) and we went to hunt some donuts down! We bought some MASSIVE donuts from ‘Doughnotts’. Me and Adam choose the Cherry Pie and Lemon Drizzle ones – they were yummy! Although we actually went for the biscoff one, but they were sold out… BOO!

I went to check the BOSH queue again and it was still quite long, but no one else was allowed to join the line… oops! I hung around anyway, I figured I’d already told Ian and Henry that I was bringing them a flower from my mum, so sure they won’t mind me quickly passing it on when they’ve finished the signing. They didn’t mind and they signed the book, as well as posing for a picture with the lucky flower for my mum! Lovely pair! … we also apologised for probably being really annoying the night before ha-ha.

Anyway, its suddenly 1630 and the next yoga session was going to be on at 1730… time for a little nap!

Saturday evening…

We joined in on the partner yoga (we were late again, surprise) and then got ready for the Saturday evening. Russell Brand was headlining in the main stage, so we decided to have little chill at the tent with all our new vegan camping friends, before heading out for food and Russell Brand.

We saw a spectacular sight while chilling at the tent – only those who were there could possibility understand what I am talking about… But there was HUGE flock of birds flying over the Showground, the sky was pitch black and the birds looked as if they were glowing! WOW.

Anyway, food time! We decided we really wanted fried chick’n, so we got some Popcorn chick’n and chips and some Chick’n Nuggets from Chickenish – then headed to the main stage. IT WAS PACKED! We were actually early (for once) but obviously so was everyone else ha-ha! Russell Brand was late. We ate our fried chick’n while waiting for the show to start and it was AMAZING! If we weren’t at a vegan festival – i’d have gone back and asked if they’d definitely given us the vegan option! Wow.

Russell brand was good, but it was SO HOT in there that we couldn’t stay for the whole show… we found out that it was live streaming to a screen in the activism venue, so we headed there instead. Turns out it was even hotter in there, so they weren’t letting anymore people in. NEVERMIND.

Instead, we decided to pose with the Vegan Camp Out banner and Sculpture, that’s more fun anyway LOL. We offered to take a picture for a lovely couple and had a chat with them, made them late for the DJ they were rushing to see though, oops, sorry about that.

After a long day, we then decided to call it a night and head back to the tent… our lovely neighbours – Libby and Charlotte came over to our tent for a chill and a chat before we headed off to bed.

Sunday at Vegan Camp Out 2021 (The last day)

NOOOO its time to go home. 🙁 Well not quite, but todays the day it finishes. I woke up at 5am but kept my eyes closed because I was too tired. Outside, I could hear morning meditation and reeeeally wanted to go, but my bed wanted me to stay more LOL. I then heard the first yoga session and STILL stayed in bed…. By the 3^rd session of the day – Hatha Yoga we’d both managed to get up, have coffee and get out and join in! YAY! So glad we made the last yoga session of the weekend.

After yoga we went to get a smoothie for breakfast, but the queue was so long, we decided to pack up instead. We packed all our stuff together to make the first trip to the car… But our kind friend lent us her camping trolley, so we managed to pop it all on that.

TIP: invest in a Camping Trolley/Festival Cart… it was so easy to carry everything to the car… we are getting one ourselves.  

Once we were all packed up – Me, Adam and Maddi decided to go and get some food before it was all over. We wanted ALL OF IT! There was like I said before, so much choice that we couldn’t choose. We finally decided to go for pizza first… Mmm, we got ‘Pepperoni’ pizza from ‘Purezza’ and it tasted amazing, so fresh and cheezey! We then went for ‘Igo Vegan’ for BBQ chick’n bites and Chick’n flatbread style wrap… OMG these were the best, I think maybe my favorite food of the weekend.

Lastly, Adam and Maddi got Vegan soft serve ice cream from DÁPPA – these looked amazing! Funnily I’d been wanting vegan ice cream the whole time I was there and was looking forward to it before I went but then when we got to the queue, I didn’t fancy it. (DO NOT ASK?) So, I got a vegan gelato iced coffee flavour pole from ‘Pola’ instead. Although Maddi said id chosen the most boring choice of food, it was actually SO GOOD! A perfect finish to the weekend at Vegan Camp Out 2021.

All in all – Vegan Camp Out 2021 was a great weekend, filled with laughs, fun, food and good people. If you are vegan 100% go!! If you aren’t vegan but want to learn and taste amazing food surrounded by beautiful humane beings, then 100% GO!

I hope you enjoyed my P.O.V story from Vegan Camp Out 2021 – If you did, please let me know in the comments 😊

Lu

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